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Book -554 M_^LSL 



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109 






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Militar)' Order of the Lo)'al Legion of the United States 



THE COMMANDERYIN-CHIEF 



In Memoriam 



(Beneraf ^^ifip %v^x'^ ^%ix\^(xxi 



UNITED STATES ARMY 






^03 



" His intrepid courage, his steadfast patriotism and the generosity of 

his nature inspired with peculiar tvarnith the admiration of the people. 
Above his grave, affection for the man and pride in his achievements ivill struggle 

for mastery, and too much honor cannot be accorded to one who was so 
richly endowed luith all the qualities which make his death a national loss." 



PHILIP HENRY SHERIDAN. 

Cadet U.S. Military Academy July I, 1848; Brevet Second Lieutenant 1st U.S. 
Infantry July I, 1853; Second Lieutenant 4th Infantry November 22, 1854; First 
Lieutenant March i, 1861 ; Captain 13th Infantry May 14, 1861 ; vacated commission 
October 12, 1864. 

Brigadier-General U.S. Army September 20, 1864; Major-General U.S. Army 
November 8, 1864, "for the personal gallantry, military skill, and just confidence in 
the courage and patriotism of his troops, displayed by him on the nineteenth day of 
October, at Cedar Run, whereby, under the blessing of Providence, his routed army 
was reorganized, a great national disaster averted, and a brilliant victory achieved over 
the rebels for the third time in pitched battles within thirty days." 

The Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in 
Congress assembled, Resolved (joint resolution approved February 9, 1865), that the 
thanks of Congress are hereby tendered 

" To Major-General P. H. Sheridan and the officers and soldiers under his com- 
mand, for the gallantry, military skill, and courage displayed in the brilliant series of 
victories achieved by them in the valley of the Shenandoah, and especially for their 
services at Cedar Run on the nineteenth day of October, 1864, which retrieved the 
fortunes of the day and thus averted a great disaster." 

Lieutenant-General U. S. Army March 4, 1869; vacated commission June i, 1888. 
General U. S. Army June i, 1888. 

Colonel 2d Michigan Cavalry May 25, 1862; discharged for promotion Septem- 
ber 29, 1862. 

Brigadier-General U.S. Volunteers July I, 1862; Major-General December 31, 
1862; vacated commission in volunteer service November 8, 1864. 

Elected May 6, 1868, in the Commandery of Pennsylvania. Class i. Insignia 750. 
Transferred to Commandery of Illinois May i, 1879 — Charter member. 
Commander of the Commandery of Illinois May 8, 1879, to November 7, 1883. 
Transferred to Commandery of District of Columbia October 20, 1886. 
Commander-in-Chief of the Order October 20, 1886, to August 5, 1888. 
Bom March 6, 183 1, at Albany, N. Y. 
Died August 5, 1888, at Nonquitt, Mass. 



(nlilitary Order of ih >Boyal Region of tlie ^niM ^tates. 



COMMANDERY-IN-CHIEF. 



Circular No. 7. 
Series of 1888. 

Headquarters, Philadelphia, August 6, 1888. 

I. The Senior Vice-Commander-in-Chief with profound sorrow 
announces the death on Sunday, August 5, 1888, of Companion 
General Philip H. Sheridan, Commander-in-Chief of the Military 
Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States. 

II. His history is a part of the history of the country, and it is 
needless to recite it to those who have venerated him so long. 

III. Appropriate action will be taken by the Commanderies of the 
Order, and as a testimony of respect, the colors will be draped for 
six months. 

By command of 

Brevet Major-General RUTHERFORD B. HAYES, U. S.V., 
Senior Vice-Commander-in-Chief, 

Commanding. 

JOHN P. NICHOLSON, 

Brevet Lieutenant-Colonel U. S.V., 

Recorder-in- Chief. 



CommanbcvB of ttje 0tate of IJennsgbania 



3n QU^tnotiam 



PHILIP HENRY SHERIDAN 



General United States Army 



(llommanberjj of tl)c 0tatc of JJcnnsjjluama 



In the death of General PhiHp H. Sheridan the United States 
Army has lost a great commander, the nation has lost a great citizen, 
and the world has lost a great soldier. 

General Sheridan won his way to a rank held by only two 
predecessors, and that at an earlier age than either of them. His 
military career, from the time when his superior ability was first clearly 
recognized in the third year of the Civil War, was unprecedented in 
the rapidity of its brilliant progress. No position in which he ever 
found himself seemed to tax his powers to their utmost. He was 
always competent to the occasion, with a suggestion of reserve-power 
far beyond the immediate call upon him. It was what he was capable 
of, beyond even all that he compassed, that justified the careful 
estimate of him by General Grant when he said, "As a soldier, as a 
commander of troops, as a man capable of doing all that is possible 
with any number of men, there is no man greater than Sheridan. He 
belongs to the very first rank of soldiers, not only of our country but 
of the world." 

The clearness of perception, the range of mental vision, the 
swiftness of decision, the power of combination, the comprehensive- 
ness of intellectual grasp, and all the other high qualities which went 
to make General Sheridan the great soldier he was shown to be, would 
doubtless have given him exceptional power in other spheres of admin- 
istrative and executive action ; but he had no ambitions beyond the 
bounds of his chosen patriotic profession, and it was in evident 
sincerity that he refused to entertain a suggestion of being chosen by 
his fellow-citizens to the highest office within their gift. His soldier- 
thought was ever of soldier-service, and as a soldier he served his 
country to the end. 

An element of General Sheridan's greatness which endeared him 
to the hearts of all who knew him was the simplicity and child-likeness 
of his noble nature. Unaffected, free from place-seeking, without 
personal vanity or pride of position, kindly in spirit, and tender- 



hearted as a woman, he was loved as sincerely as he was honored and 
admired ; and in his death he is no less mourned for what he was, than 
remembered gratefully for what he did. Nor can any feel his loss 
more deeply, or more truly sympathize with the bereaved members of 
his immediate family than his companions of the Loyal Legion, who 
pay this affectionate tribute of regard to his memory, as they look 
back with grateful pride upon the record of his high achievements in 
the sphere of his patriotic life-work. 

John F. Hartranft, 

Brevet Major-General U. S.V. 
Henry M. Hoyt, 

Brevet Brigadier-General U. S.V. 
Lewis Merrill, 

Brevet Brigadier-General U. S.V. 
William H. Harrison, 

Brevet Colonel U. S.V. 
Hampton S. Thomas, 

Brevet Lieutenant-Colonel U. S.V. 
Sylvester Bonnaffon, jr.. 

Brevet Lieutenant-Colonel U. S.V. 
J. Edward Carpei\ter, 

Brevet Major U. S.V. 
H. Clay Trumbull, 

Chaplain loth Conn. Infantry. 

Comittittee. 



€omman5cvD of \\)t 0tate of Neto Hork 



Jn Qtlemomm 



PHILIP HENRY SHERIDAN 



General United States Army 



tfommanbcra of tl)e State of Ncu) |)orli 



At a meeting of this Commandery the following report of a com- 
mittee appointed at a special meeting to draft resolutions relative to 
the death of Companion General Philip H. Sheridan was adopted : 

Resolved, In the War of the Rebellion the services of General 
Sheridan were a contribution of distinct and priceless value to the 
preservation of the country. Not the least of that service was the 
animating and exalted force of his example, inciting at once to energy 
and to self-control, to ambition and to generosity, and above all to 
a patriotic manhood. 

His later years have disclosed that his abilities in war were only 
not greater than his worth in easier times and in the personal walks of 
life. 

The ties which bind us here endeared to us at once his greatness 
and his worth. In this Association he was our fitting chief, and as 
our chief his death has given us a memory of him which is our own. 

From his country to her General, and from us to our Commander, 
it is due that his qualities be cherished with his memory. Recipro- 
cating his affection, we commend him reverently to God, who made 
him what he was to our country and to us. 

His widow and his children have in us the little heritage of an 
affectionate solicitude, and we tender to them in their sorrow this 
tribute to our friend. 

Wager Swayne, 

Brevet Major-General U. S. A. 
Charles A. Carleton, 

Brevet Brigadier-General U. S.V. 
Robert Boyd, 

Captain U. S. N. 
Horatio C. King, 

Brevet Colonel U. S.V. 

Committee. 



14 



€omman{)cvB of tl)e State of iilaiuc 



3n Qtlmomm 



PHILIP HENRY SHERIDAN 



General United States Army 



Cammanbcrji of tl)c 0tate of MXaxnt 



The Commandery of Maine has heard with the profoundest 
sorrow of the death of Philip Henry Sheridan, the General of the 
Army of the United States and the Commander of our Order, who 
died on the fifth of August last, at Nonquitt, in Massachusetts. 

His name remains with imperishable renown in the annals of this 
nation and in the history of free government. Associated with the 
greatest of the heroes of the Union, he has immortalized the contest 
for its preservation with the most brilliant of its victories. The battle- 
fields of the land are glorious with his patriotism, his valor, his judg- 
ment and his skill. At Murfreesboro he checked an advancing and 
victorious enemy. Chattanooga witnessed his assault of Missionary 
Ridge and the overthrow of Bragg' s centre. In Virginia he showed 
the world a great cavalry leader, and swept from the path of the 
Army of the Potomac the gallant horsemen of Stuart, and destroyed 
their commander. Appointed to the command of an army, he proved 
himself a great general, gaining three victories in one campaign ; and 
at Cedar Creek, bringing no reinforcement but his own heroic soul, 
he routed a triumphant enemy with an army that had been beaten in 
the morning. He conquered at Five Forks, and at Appomattox he 
cut off the retreat of Lee. 

The nation which he did so much to save appointed him the 
General of its army amid the applause of his former adversaries. He 
died in full possession of that genius which made him a shield for his 
country and a thunderbolt to its enemies. 

Like the great commanders by whose side he served, his sword 
was drawn only in defence of the U^nion and of constitutional govern- 
ment. Illustrious as were his deeds, he became with peace a model 
citizen, and vindicated the institutions of equality and freedom. 

The members of this Order, proud of the fame of their great 
companion, and proud of their association with him in the cause of 
liberty and union, will ever cherish his memory and seek to extend 
those principles of the Order which he so nobly illustrated. 

Francis Fessenuen, Brevet Major-Ceneral U. S. A. 
Selden Connor, Brigadier- General U. S.V. 
Jared a. Smith, Lieutenant-Colonel U. S. A. 

CommiUef. 
i6 



CommanierB of tl)e 0tate of illassacljusetts 



3n Qtlmomm 



PHILIP HENRY SHERIDAN 



General United States Army 



Olommanbevj! of tl)c 0tate of i^Q0sacl)usctt0 



The following tribute to the memory of General Philip Henry 
Sheridan, U. S. A., was offered by Companion Brevet Major-General 
Charles Devens, and was adopted by a unanimous vote. 

Mr. Commander and Companions : 

As we gather at our first autumnal meeting, there is a shadow 
thrown over it by the reflection that since we last assembled we have 
been called to part with the illustrious soldier who was the head of our 
national organization. In obedience to the direction of our Com- 
mander, I rise to speak some words, inadequate though they must be, 
of him and of the love and honor in which we held him. 

If the hour of friendly intercourse, when hand clasps hand in 
affectionate recognition, is saddened, it is dignified also by the remem- 
brance of what he has been to the country of which we, in our more 
humble capacity, as well as he, have been soldiers. We would 
recall him to-night not in sorrow only, but in honor, in gratitude for 
what we have received, not less than in regret for what we have lost. 
He is but a little in advance on the path we all must travel, as the 
great historic events in which we have been actors pass into history. 
It is agreeable to remember that he was the guest of this Commandery 
for a few days during the past winter, when each one of us enjoyed his 
cordial greeting. His life ebbed away, too, on the shores of the 
southern bay of Massachusetts, where he had made his summer home, 
and it was the sad privilege of some of our companions to aid in 
bearing his remains to the train which was to conduct them to our 
national capital, there to rest forever among those who have offered 
their lives for the Republic. 

The occasion is not adapted for an elaborate address. Yet you 
will pardon me if I briefly touch on some of the events in the career 
of General Sheridan, for of him it may properly be said that his deeds 
are his eulogy. 

Born at Somerset, in Ohio, on March 6, 1831, he graduated from 



18 



West Point in the class of 1853. He was a captain in the Thirteenth 
Infantry at the beginning of the war, and for more than a year there- 
after rendered staff duty which, if valuable, called for ability of quite 
a different order from that which he subsequently displayed. It was 
not until the twenty-seventh of May, 1862, that he received an 
appointment as Colonel of the Second Michigan Cavalry. This gave 
him the first opportunity for the display of his abilities in the field, 
and they were not long concealed. Joining with his regiment in the 
operations which accompanied the evacuation of Corinth, his dash, 
vigor and judgment were at once recognized. On the first of July, in 
command as colonel of a brigade of cavalry, composed of but two 
regiments (one his own), at Booneville, in Mississippi, some twenty 
miles in front of our main army, he was attacked by General Chalmers 
with a force of some five or six thousand men — at least three times 
his own number. This little battle, now almost forgotten when so 
many larger conflicts arrest the attention, was one of the most remark- 
able in the war, for it ended not only in his beating off the enemy but 
in putting him to utter rout. Here he won his first star and his com- 
mission as brigadier. Were there time to recall the details of it you 
would recognize how fully it shows the characteristics he afterwards 
exhibited on larger fields. As a general he was essentially aggressive. 
If compelled to fight, having inferior numbers to his adversary, he yet 
held it was better to attack than to wait to receive one. Self-confident, 
but in no vain-glorious way, naturally sanguine and full of resources, 
his fiery and almost audacious courage suggested to him plans which 
might have seemed rash but that his vigor in execution demonstrated 
that they could be successfully carried out. He said, in conversation 
here last winter, "Some generals, and pretty good ones, too, fight a 
battle so that they shall be sure not to be beaten themselves, but I 
always fight to beat the other man." This was the key to his tactics 
and his success. It was from "the nettle danger" that, like Hotspur, 
he strove to "pluck the flower safety." Yet it would be a great mis- 
take to suppose that he lacked prudence. In all that wariness and skill 
could do to accomplish his results he was never wanting. 

We speak of General Sheridan often as a cavalry general, but for 
more than a year and a half after the battle to which I have alluded 
he commanded infantry, and his subsequent command of the Army of 
the Shenandoah, and his conduct of the pursuit of Lee, show how 
thoroughly he understood each of the great arms of the service. 

In September, 1862, he was transferred to a division in the Army 
of the Ohio, fighting in the successful battle of Perryville, under Buell. 

19 



Assigned to a division in the Army of the Cumberland, at Murfrees- 
borough, in December, 1862, he bore his part most gallantly under 
Rosecrans in that terrible and at first doubtful day. The battle went 
against us in the wing of the army where his division fought, and after 
repulsing four successive attacks it was finally compelled to fall back to 
a position where he rallied it and held it firmly against the enemy, who 
tried in vain to complete the victory, and who were the next day 
obliged to abandon the field. For his skilful handling of his troops 
he received the warmest praise of Rosecrans, who recommended him 
for promotion as a major-general, which was promptly accorded. 

At Chickamauga, in September of the following year, he still 
commanded a division of the Army of the Cumberland. The defeat 
received there by us was on the whole, in its anticipated results, the 
most serious ever inflicted on the Union arms, for it threatened destruc- 
tion to our control of the Mississippi Valley, which had been won at 
so much expense of blood and treasure. Sheridan's own division was 
in the worst of the disaster. No man had ever greater power of inspir- 
ing the troops under him with confidence in himself, and with breathing 
into them the fire of his own courage, than he. That magnetic quality 
soldiers who may deservedly be called great from their powers to plan 
campaigns, and from their strategic capacity, sometimes lack, but no 
man without it can be on the field a successful general. All that Gen- 
eral Sheridan possessed was needed on that day, and was well used. 
While the stern bravery of Thomas held firmly on his part of the line, 
Sheridan succeeded in rallying his broken troops, in reforming his line, 
and was advancing to support Thomas when he received the order to 
remain where he was, and allow the army to fall back on him. The 
day which could not be redeemed from defeat was thus rescued from 
rout and utter disaster. 

It was at the great battle of Chattanooga, on Missionary Ridge, 
which followed some two months later, that General Grant is believed 
to have first seen Sheridan's command under fire, and to have begun 
to form the opinion which he afterwards entertained, that he was un- 
surpassed in the world as a general on the field and in the immediate 
command of troops. The defeat of Chickamauga had been received 
with dismay, but the battle of Chattanooga, one of the most important 
won by Grant, not only restored our position, but opened the way for 
Sherman's march to Atlanta. On the day of the battle the Army of 
the Cumberland, then under Thomas, held the centre of the line, and 
when the hour for the assault came its troops, among whom the div- 
isions of Wood and Sheridan were foremost, rushed up the mountain 



wall, clambering from ridge to ridge with a furious energy which swept 
all before them. Sheridan used to say, jestingly, that he never knew 
who ordered such an assault as that, and that "his division that day 
got away from him." It certainly did not get far away, as he, too, 
was up when it crowned the mountain crest, fully prepared to direct 
the stern pursuit of the retreating foe. It had in fact been intended, 
after taking the first line of the enemy's works, to halt and reform, 
but the blood of the Army of the Cumberland was up, and in the 
presence of Hooker on the right with his Potomac troops, and Sher- 
man on the left with those from Mississippi, it was ready to show itself 
worthy of those who had come so far to its support. 

General Sheridan came to the east with General Grant on the 
appointment of the latter to the command of all the armies of the 
Union. The Army of the Shenandoah was formed to be placed under 
his command late in the summer of 1864. Without alluding except 
by name to Opequan, Winchester, and Fisher's Hill, the battle of 
Cedar Creek, as illustrating his vast power over men, and his courage 
under circumstances the most adverse, must be mentioned in any sketch 
of him, however imperfect. His army was skilfully attacked in his 
absence, one division utterly surprised, and all gradually forced back 
until in some portions of his army the retreat had become a rout. 
Twenty miles away he heard the roar of the conflict, and waiting for 
no aides or guards he started at once for the field. His very progress 
was blocked as he neared the field by fugitives, to all of whom he 
cried, "Go back, go back to your regiments ! we will sleep in our old 
camps to-night ! " until, for very shame, his voice was listened to. As 
he reached the field, the rout to some extent had been checked, and 
two divisions had always stood resolute and firm. His presence on the 
field was an inspiration, regiment after regiment getting into position, 
men who could not find their own regiments going into others will- 
ingly, all animated by the fire of this daring spirit, who seemed to 
have come upon the scene as in the Roman mythology the war-god 
himself descended when the battle seemed lost to his children. The 
line was reformed, and firmly he awaited the last assault of the Confed- 
erate troops, which, vigorously made, was sternly repulsed. And now 
his own time had come. Riding down his line, received with raptur- 
ous cheers by men some of whom had been fugitives but a few hours 
before but now were ready to die for such a leader as he cried, "We 
are going back to the camps we left ; we will have back every inch of 
ground we lost; every inch, remember!" the word for the assault 



was given, all that had been lost was regained, and General Early 
again went "whirling up the Valley." 

I do not pretend to be a very wide or accurate reader of military 
history, but I believe it contains no account of any battle utterly lost 
that has been redeemed by the wisdom, the valor, the inspiration that 
came from only one man. Great fields have indeed often been recov- 
ered by the opportune arrival of fresh troops led by a competent 
general. Marengo, which Napoleon always felt to be one of the 
greatest of his victories, seemed at the middle of the day so clearly 
lost that the Austrian general had retired to his tent, leaving the 
pursuit to his second in command. General Desaix, who had been 
despatched in a different direction, had marched at the sound of the 
cannon and without orders, at once to the scene of the conflict. Be- 
hind him were more than ten thousand of the best troops of the 
French army. "What do you think of the battle, Desaix?" said 
Bonaparte to him. "I think, General Bonaparte, this battle is lost, 
but before nightfall, with myself and my troops, you will be sure to 
win another." The result proved the accuracy of his prediction, 
although the brave soldier who uttered it gave his own life to verify it. 
But at Cedar Creek, out of a broken, dispirited, almost formless mob, 
one man alone had re-created an army, had filled it full with his own 
patriotic courage, and led it to victory over a foe flushed with success, 
to which it had yielded seven or eight miles of ground. If Sheridan 
swore a little while he was doing this, as Dr. Bartol thinks he may have 
done, I am altogether of the reverend doctor's opinion also, that he 
swore in sustaining a great and holy cause, that of his country, and I 
trust that the accusing angel did not deem it necessary to write down 
every hot word against him. 

In this matter of swearing some injustice has been done General 
Sheridan. The makers of anecdotes spice them high, and do not 
shrink from slight exaggeration. Remember what a battle-field is, that 
It is no place for calm discussion, but for instant action. If in such 
moments he used some of those expletives in which the English lan- 
guage is said to be peculiarly rich, remember the intense excitement 
and ardent passion in which he had to speak. In no sense was Gen- 
eral Sheridan a coarsely or vulgarly profane man, far less was he a 
contemner or despiser of sacred things. He was faithful to the church 
in which he had been reared, respectful to its ordinances and its 
ministers always. 

It was the intention of General Grant not only to defeat Eee in 
the spring of 1865 — which in an earlier stage of the war would have 



been enough — but to compel his surrender. It would have been a 
grave disaster if escaping he could unite with Johnston, and moving 
towards the southwest could continue the war. In such a struggle, 
which would turn out to be finally a race between swiftly-moving 
bodies of troops, the cavalry would play a most important part. To 
command this and the infantry which would from time to time support 
it General Sheridan came from the Valley of Virginia. In giving his 
orders to pass to the extreme right of the Confederate army it was con- 
templated by Grant that in certain contingencies Sheridan might him- 
self be separated from the Potomac army and compelled to move 
towards Sherman. Observing that Sheridan looked somewhat grave at 
this. General Grant says in his Memoirs, "I told him that as a matter 
of fact I intended to close the war right here with this movement, and 
that it should go no further." His face at once brightened at this, and 
slapping his thigh he said, "I am glad to hear it, and we can do it." 

Then followed the attack on the Petersburg line by the Army of 
the Potomac, while with matchless skill Sheridan at Dinwiddie, Five 
Forks, Jetersville, and Sailor'^ Creek, checked the retreat of Lee to 
the southward, and at Appomattox closed the last avenue of escape 
towards the west with his cavalry and the rapidly-moving infantry 
which sustained it. 

His later services, if less splendid than those to which I have 
called attention, were in a high degree valuable and useful to the 
country. Made Lieutenant-General in 1869, on the promotion of 
General Sherman, he succeeded to the command of the army in 1884, 
and a few months before he died he received by the title of General 
the highest military rank which the country has ever bestowed. 

While I have necessarily spoken only of his military achievements, 
as we part from this illustrious chieftain let us remember that he was 
not merely a soldier with a passion for war. He was an intense 
believer in the high destiny of this nation, in the preservation of the 
American Union, and a thoroughly patriotic man. 

Our citizens of Irish birth and Irish descent have a right to be 
proud of their record in the civil war and of the many brave men 
they contributed to our armies. They have a right also to be proud 
that this great soldier was of their race and blood. He possessed 
many of the highest qualities which have distinguished the Irish people. 
Not having the rare gift of eloquence which has been bestowed so 
largely upon the countrymen of Burke and Grattan, of Curran and 
O'Connell, speaking always reluctantly before public audiences, and 
indeed before gatherings of his old comrades, when he did thus speak 



23 



his keen wit, his terse expression, gave point always to his utterance. 
But on the battlefield he had the eloquence of intense feeling. He 
knew just what to say and how to say it so as to make the deepest 
impression and ensure the readiest response. There his words, short, 
abrupt, incisive, came with the directness of rifle-shots, cheering the 
hesitating, fiercely rebuking the reluctant, and directing the storm with 
a voice that must be obeyed. 

To say that he was brave is little, for the same might be said of 
thousands of other men. While he was fearless as the sabre that swung 
by his side, he was wise, regarding the lives of the men he commanded 
as a trust not to be imperilled except as the result to be expected would 
justify risk, but when that time came launching his troops on the enemy 
like a thunderbolt. Not Murat, whose brilliant charges did so much 
to win so rfiany of Napoleon's battles ; not Prince Rupert, whose fiery 
•courage at the head of the English cavaliers almost saved the crown of 
his royal kinsman, King Charles, had more impetuous valor than he ; 
and neither of them in the fury and rage of the onset had a more sound 
or unerring judgment. 

He was generous; no broken soldier approached him who was not 
Ikindly received and cordially welcomed. If sometimes quick in 
temper, he was readily appeased, for his nature was loving and 
forgiving. 

Not the least interesting or least amiable characteristic of the Irish 
people is its strong attachment to friends and home and family. It 
was a marked feature in the character of General Sheridan. He was 
a tender and loving husband, he was a kind father, he was a grateful 
and devoted son. A few years ago I had the honor of accompanying 
General Grant and himself from Detroit, and he left us at a way 
station in Ohio saying, "Once a year, at least, I try to make a visit to 
my old mother; " and her death, which took place but a little before 
his own, was concealed from him on account of the effect it might 
produce in his then dangerous condition. 

But while General Sheridan possessed many of the finest charac- 
teristics of the Irish race from which he was descended, while he sym- 
pathized warmly, I doubt not, with it in all that it has elsewhere been 
called to endure, he was essentially in thought and feeling an American. 
Born upon the soil of the United States and within its allegiance, he 
knew no country but this as his own. Educated at its expense, he was 
proud to be one of its children. He was ready to live for it, he was 
ready to die rather than that one stripe should be erased or one star 
obscured in its glorious ensign. He was national in feeling to his 



24 



I 



very heart's core. When, without joining in the splendid review at 
Washington, he was sent by Grant with an army corps to the Rio 
Grande to notify by his presence imperial France that her attempt to 
break down the republic of Mexico and establish a monarchy there by 
the bayonets of Europe must cease, he accepted the duty, and his 
report shows Avith what alacrity he did it. No notice was ever more 
vigorously served, or more promptly responded to. 

As we render our tribute to-night to this great soldier whom we 
have a right to call by the tender names of "comrade" and "com- 
panion," we are reminded how fast the numbers diminish of those who 
were permitted to survive the war. Meade and Thomas, the fiery 
Hooker, the chivalrous Hancock, the head of our Order almost from 
its organization until his death, Grant himself, in whom is united the 
just renown of all the armies of the Union, are gone. The fall of the 
leaders tells how sternly and steadily the artillery of time is doing its 
work. Yet the land itself is nobler and fairer by reason of the brave 
men who have been ready to die for it. 

" The waters murmiir of their name, 
The woods are peopled with their fame." 

The mountains seem to lift their heads more loftily, and the rivers 
to move to the sea with a more majestic sweep as they are ennobled by 
their memory. While that memory lives they are not dead, for they 
stand as an example to which the humblest is entitled and which the 
highest cannot afford to despise. They stand as an encouragement to 
duty and patriotism, and their honor is a part of the inheritance of all 
their countrymen. 

And if, which God avert, war should come to others as it came to 
us, it may be that at the close of some hotly-contested day, when it 
shall be determined to finish with the advance of the old flag which 
he loved and under which he fought so well, when the word "forward" 
shall be heard from captain to captain along the line, the name of 
Sheridan, as a watchword and a battle-cry, shall ring from rank to 
rank and from file to file to inspire all with something of the daring 
and the courage of this great and heroic soul. 

Mr. Commander and Companions, I submit for your consideration 
to be entered upon our records ; 

Resolved, That since the last meeting of this Commandery it has 
learned with profound grief of the decease of General Philip H. Sher- 
idan, commanding the Army of the United States and the head of our 



25 



organization, the Military Order of the Loyal Legion. In the full 
maturity of his powers as a soldier, and surrounded by all that makes 
life dear, he calmly met and was vanquished by death, the great enemy 
of man, whose face he had seen without blanching on many a battle- 
field. 

His lofty patriotism and his noble fame are a part of the history 
of the whole country. Rising from rank to rank, each new occasion, 
as it threw upon him new and heavier responsibilities, but serv^ed to 
develop higher and greater powers. His magnificent courage, his 
undaunted firmness in difficulties and even threatened defeat, his keen 
insight, his rapid perception of the chances and changes of a battle, 
and his matchless energy, place him as a commander of troops on the 
field among the greatest soldiers that the world has ever known. His 
great achievements rendered in the cause of liberty, the constitution 
and the Union enroll him forever among the immortal names that can- 
not die while our government shall live. To our countrymen that shall 
come after us his name shall stand forever as an encouragement to high 
thought, noble endeavor, and unswerving devotion to their country in 
every hour of its peril. 

While his death is a national loss, in which in its larger aspect his 
companions can only have their share as citizens, yet as his fellow- 
soldiers they are entitled lovingly to remember how bravely and wisely 
he led them on many a bloody day, to recall his simplicity in manners, 
his cheerful conversation, his cordial grasp of the hand, and to do 
honor to his loving and generous nature. 

Resolved, That the Companions of this Commandery tender to 
the widow and children of General Sheridan the assurance of their 
most respectful and deepest sympathy in their great bereavement. 



26 



Commanficrjj of tl)C State of California 



3n Qtlmotiatn 



PHILIP HENRY SHERIDAN 



General United States Army 



OIommanbcrB of tl)c 0tate of OlQUforma 



Sheridan had the genius of a soldier. He was the American 
soldier, pure and simple. 

Trained to military service in the National Academy, he pursued 
the profession when the chances of promotion seemed remote. 

Array life possessed peculiar charms for him. 

He was a close student of the military history of modern times ; 
during the long peace which went before the outbreak of the Rebellion 
his mind was wholly prepared for work in the field of action. 

When Grant and Sherman had gained their stars, Sheridan was in 
the Arkansas Campaign, holding the rank of captain ; he was a good 
captain, though the opportunity had not yet come to him to render 
conspicuous service. 

In the larger scope as colonel of a cavalry regiment, and the 
leader of an independent expedition, soldierly qualities were so mani- 
fested that the attention of army commanders was drawn to him. 

The promotion which had seemed so remote came with dazzling 
rapidity. In each new place he met increased responsibilities and 
gained new laurels. 

He was not ambitious beyond the proper ambition of a soldier. 
He had three great qualities of a successful commander. He had 
faith in the cause for which he fought; he had confidence in the men 
who followed him; last, but not least, he had confidence in himself as 
a leader. 

His presence in the field was an inspiration to his soldiers. They 
had faith in his judgment and admiration for his gallantry. Moreover 
there was fight in every fibre of the man. 

It cannot be said that he was ever defeated. Even at Chicka- 
mauga, when the enemy's hordes were pressing and crushing the old 
Army of the Cumberland, Sheridan, undismayed, gave ample evidence 
of his ability in the great emergency of battle. 

In the world-famed charge that swept the rebel hosts from the 
crest of Missionary Ridge, he was again the intrepid, fearless soldier. 



28 



As leader of an army in the Valley of the Shenandoah, and com- 
mander of the cavalry in the field about Richmond, he confronted the 
veterans of the Confederate army, and astonished his adversaries by 
his soldierly genius no less than by his superb valor. 

The country knew him as the brave and daring Phil. Sheridan. 
The loyal people of the nation honor the memory of this great patriot 
and heroic soldier. His example will speak to future generations. 

W. H. L. Barnes, 
Alex. G. Hawes, 

Lieutenant-Colonel U. S.V. 
W. R. .Smedberg, 

Brevet Lieutenant-Colonel U. S. A. 

Com7nittee. 



29 



vdommanbcviji of tl)e State of lUisconsin 



3n (TUmomm 



PHILIP HENRY SHERIDAN 



Gknkral Unitf.d States Army 



CommanbcrB of t\)t State of Wisconsin 



In the prime of his manhood and the zenith of his fame, the 
General of the Army and the Commander-in-Chief of the Military 
Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States has answered the 
summons of the Lord of Hosts, and the soldier who never knew 
surrender to mortal foe has obeyed the mandate of Omnipotence. 

No need to dwell upon the story of his honored life. The very 
name he bore has become among our people the synonym for courage 
of the highest type, patriotism of the most exalted order, and skill 
and dash and daring in the field of arms seldom equalled in an age of 
warriors and never excelled. 

From first to last, in the war for the maintenance of the Union, 
he never struck a faltering blow. It was Sheridan who bore the brunt 
on many a western field ; Sheridan who stemmed the torrent and, 
stubborn to the last, held firm his shattered ranks at Murfreesboro ; 
Sheridan who rallied the remnants of the stricken right and joined his 
welcome lines with those of Thomas — the Rock of Chickamanga ; 
Sheridan whose colors foremost swept the heights at Mission Ridge ; 
Sheridan who came from western victories to give the willing cavalry 
a leader worthy of their steel ; Sheridan who snatched a glorious prize 
from the jaws of fell disaster in the Shenandoah ; who sent Early 
"whirling through Winchester," who turned the valley of humiliation 
into a thoroughfare for the triumphant arms of the Union ; Sheridan 
who swept like whirlwind from the mountains down the James ; 
Sheridan who planned and fought and won the last brilliant battle on 
Virginia soil, snapped the last prop of the Confederacy ; and Sheridan 
who brought to bay the valiant but at last outgeneralled host of Lee, 
and forced the final fall at Appomattox. 

Soldier in every fibre of his being, wise in council, deliberate in 
preparation but vehement, resistless in attack and indomitable in 
action, he lived in song and story the very incarnation of battle — the 
hero of the whole nation. 

No words of ours can add to the world-wide chorus telling his 



soldier story. Winning, step by step, his way to the head of the 
nation's soldiery, he has laid down the sword in the fulness of a 
finished and a glorious life. 

To the Military Order of the Loyal Legion his is a loss that time 
cannot efface. Commander and Companion, he held the love and 
faith of every man ; and now, in sympathy with those on whom his 
death must fall with even heavier weight, in honor for his heroic traits 
as soldier and as citizen, we drape our colors in their mourning guise 
and bow the reverent head in mute acceptance of the mandate from 
on high ; but no grave can rob us of the memory of his peerless deeds, 
no time can efface the story of his soldierly achievement. We mourn 
the bitter loss that comes on every loyal heart this day, but we glory 
in the record of the sword now sheathed forever — there is no death 
for such a fame as Sheridan's. 

Geo. I. Robinson, 

Commander. 

A. Ross Houston, 

Junior Vice- Commander^ 

Charles King, 

Recorder, 

Committee^ 



33 



alomman&crB of tl)c State of Sllinoia 



3n (yUmoriam 



PHILIP HENRY SHERIDAN 



General United States Army 



Commanberg of tl)c State of Sllinois 



Again the flags are at half-mast ; again the muffled drums are 
beating. Far from the battlefield, far from the "pride, pomp and 
circumstance of glorious war," amid the peaceful scenes of old New 
England, a great and loyal soldier sleeps his last sleep. 

The General of the Army is dead. 

What splendid achievements, what knightly bearing and heroic 
action, what mighty deeds of valor amid the smoke and flame of hotly 
contested fields, what glorious recollections of campaign and battle, 
are recalled by the name of Sheridan ! 

The Illinois Commandery of the Military Order of the Loyal 
Legion is called upon to mourn the most illustrious member of the 
Order and one of the foremost Americans of our time. In the death 
of General Philip H. Sheridan we feel a keen sorrow for the loss of a 
dear personal friend, as well as of a great and good man, endeared to 
his countrymen by the noblest qualities of head and heart. 

His fame and services are known throughout the world, and they 
will be handed down to posterity on the brightest page of American 
history. A great soldier, a leader in war, a winner of battles, a tried 
counsellor, his career in the great war in which he bore so distinguished 
a part won the admiration and gratitude of his country, and his genial 
spirit and good heart won the love and devotion of his friends. 

General Sheridan was a man of the people. Of humble origin 
and great achievements, he illustrated in his life the genius of American 
institutions ; reaching without the aid of fortune the highest success 
and fame by his own great powers, developed in the simple path of 
duty and honor. He loved the people, and the people loved him. 

Few men in any age have united the great qualities that distin- 
guished General Sheridan — devotion to country, fidelity to duty, 
honesty of purpose. Keeping close to all of these, he "stood four- 
square to all the winds that blew," and neither praise nor censure ever 
moved him from his great purpose to do the best that was in him for 
the great work he had in hand. 

36 



How truthfully can it be inscribed upon his tomb that his life was 
a successful one ! Failure, to him, was something unknown ; success 
always crowned his efforts — not the result of chance, but the result 
of that combination of qualities which we call character. 

Political ambition possessed no charms for him. His was the life 
of the soldier in the highest and best sense. 

The country has lost one of its greatest and purest men, and a 
host of Americans have lost a dear friend, the memory of whose great 
deeds will be cherished as long as history lasts. 

Luther P. Bradley, 
William E. Strong, 
Arthur C. Ducat, 
JuDSON D. Bingham, 
Huntington W. Jackson, 
Taylor P. Rundlet, 
William E. Furness, 

Committee^ 



37 



vdommau&ers of tlje JDistrict of Columbia 



3n Qtlemomm 



PHILIP HENRY SHERIDAN 



General United States Army 



^JTommanbcrg of tl)e Slistrut of Columbia 



While this announcement excited emotions in us that are shared 
by the Army of which he was the head, the Order of which he was 
the Commander-in-Chief, the survivors of that war in which he was so 
conspicuous a figure, the country which he served so well, and the 
whole civilized world whose history he has enriched, yet we of this 
Commandery, whose companion he was, experience in our bereavement 
a sorrow peculiar to ourselves. He was one of us ; we were members 
of the same military family; we sat at the same board; he was endeared 
to us by immediate personal association and fellowship. 

These considerations make it fit that while we unite with all who 
mourn his loss and applaud his memory, we should express our appre- 
ciation of his military abilities and achievements, and of his worth as 
a man, a citizen, and a friend. 

History has already begun to write upon her imperishable tablets, 
in letters that shall never grow dim, those characteristics that rank him 
with the great soldiers of all time. 

Indefatigable — no labor was too onerous for him. 

Resolute — no obstacle appalled him. 

Alert — no accident surprised him. 

Ready — no disappointment foiled him of his purpose. 

Observant — no fact escaped him. 

Discreet — he knew where his blow should fall. 

Provident — he was always equipped. 

Impetuous — he was also safe. His infantry charged as if they 
were cavalry ; his cavalry resisted as if they were infantry. 

Enthusiastic — his zeal was full of knowledge. 

-Studious of the situation, aware of every accident of position 
that made for or against him, he was as careful to turn the impregnable 
as he was eager to carry the assailable. 

His maps were scored with highways of attack and thoroughfares 
of victory. He never went into battle that he did not intend and 
expect and believe he would win. He ''fought to end our fighting," 
and every blow told. 

4D 



A commander, he was also a leader ; a leader, he was also a 
comrade. Whether by command, or exhortation, or persuasion, or 
example, or by all these combined, he so impressed himself upon his 
forces that they became an obedient weapon, responsive to his resistless 
purpose. To have served under Sheridan was to have served with him ; 
to have served with him was to have served for him and as a part of 
him. 

He was his own reserve, which was always in action. From the 
overflowing abundance of his own personality he succored his hard- 
pressed troops with the reinforcement of himself. His phrases were 
watchwords ; his dispatches were campaigns ; his orders rang like a 
trumpet and cut like a sabre. The horse he rode became a poem ; the 
hat he wore a relic. 

Take the roll of cavalry commanders from Alexander down. 
Some may have had larger opportunity; some may have, singly, 
excelled him in some one quality ; but none of them, judged by the 
full accomplishment of the tasks set for him, was the superior of Sher- 
idan. It was the judgment of a friendly expert, to be sure, but still 
the judgment of an expert, that led Grant to say after Cedar Creek, 
"This victory stamps Sheridan as what I have always thought him — 
one of the ablest of generals." Competent students have pronounced 
the battle of Five Forks "the most perfect battle in its tactics ever 
delivered in Virginia." 

It is useless to speculate upon what he might have done, or would 
have done, had he been during the War of the Rebellion, as he was 
but just now, the General-in-Chief of the Army. It is enough to 
know, as we do know, that he was equal to every emergency, and rose 
to the full height of every duty the war laid upon him. 

As Addison wrote of Marlborough, his 

" Exploits appear divinely bright, 
And proudly shine in their own light ; 
Raised of themselves, their genuine charms they boast. 
And those who paint them truest praise them most." 

He was more than a soldier. He was a patriot. Every pulse of 
that fast-beating heart of his throbbed with love to his country, as 
every nerve was tense with martial ardor. The republic he did so 
much to preserve in its integrity — purified, cleansed, ennobled and 
regenerated by the war — he loved with all the force of his intense 
nature. 



41 



In the exercise of combined civil and military authority the same 
prompt and decisive energy he had shown in the field distinguished his 
action in behalf of the honor, as he saw it, of the Union whose ser- 
vant he was. To that Union he gave the unquestioned and unques- 
tioning loyalty of a lover. 

As a friend, true, hearty, and abiding, social and companionable, 
his humor bubbled over irresistibly. 

As a husband and a father, beloved and tender. 

How inestimable is the loss of that stricken family ! 

He lived to see his old enemies his friends, and to receive from 
them, as from his former associates, honor, sympathy, and love. 

The heroism of his last battle ! Who shall recount it ? Who 
shall thank sufficiently those who aided to sustain a life so precious, so 
long against such fearful adversaries? 

To this perfect soldier, this beloved friend, this earnest patriot, 
this dear companion, the Angel of the Lord, whom men call Death, 
brought at last the summons of release. He has crossed the river and 
is at rest. 

Gone bodily from us, he is still ours, "for love can never lose its 
own," and we loved him with all our hearts. 

There are in this Commandery some who were with him at the 
Point, some who knew him as lieutenant in the west, some who served 
on the same staff when he was quartermaster, some who rode beside 
him at Booneville, some who fought with him in the cedars of Stone 
River, some who strove with him to be first on the summit of Mission 
Ridge, some who made the Valley Campaign with him, some who 
helped him hold Dinwiddie and win Five Forks, some who later aided 
him in Texas or on the Plains. 

Their circle narrows day by day. 

We remember him at our table, in his headquarters, at the clubs, 
on the streets ; and our circle, too, is constantly getting smaller. 

Our personal knowledge shall soon become tradition ; but our 
sons shall tell our tale of him to their sons, and they in turn to theirs, 
so that the memory of his valor, his skill, his loyalty, his friendship, 
shall ever be green ; for he is 

" Freedom's now, and Fame's ; 
One of the few, the immortal names, 
That were not born to die." 

All that is mortal of him shall be laid in Arlington near us. It 



42 



shall be the pious duty of this Commandery to care for the grave of 
its honored and loved Companion. 

" When Spring, with dewy fingers cold, 
Returns to deck the hallowed mould, 
She there shall dress a sweeter sod 
Than Fancy's feet have ever trod." 

Time may efface that grave, or destroy the monumental stone that 
shall mark it. But no time can destroy, no convulsion overthrow the 
monument of the nation's grateful and loving remembrance of our 
Companion Philip H. Sheridan. 

This Commandery, making sad record of the death of its illustri- 
ous member, our honored Companion, our beloved friend, Philip H. 
Sheridan, also records its gratitude that it was our privilege to know as 
one of our Commandery one whose life was such an example to the 
patriot and the soldier. 

To his family, in their unspeakable loss, we extend our sincerest 
sympathy, and offer every assistance within our power. 

In memory of our departed Companion we will wear the usual 
badge of mourning for the next thirty days. 

Charles F. Manderson, 

Brevet Brigadier-General U. S.V. 
\Vm. Pitkin Huxkord, 

Brevet Major U. S. A. 
Charles G. Sawtelle, 

Brevet Brigadier-General U. S. A. 
Benjamin C. Card, 

Brevet Brigadier-General U. S. A. 
Reuben D. Mussey, 

Brevet Brigadier-General U. S.V. 

Committee. 



43 



4lDmmanbcvj3 of tt)c State of ©l)io 



3n (TUentoriam 



PHILIP HENRY SHERIDAN 



Gkneral United States Army 



€ommanbevB of tl)e State of ©Ijio 



George Washington, U. S. Grant, Wm. T, Sherman, and Philip 
H. Sheridan are the only officers who were commissioned General of 
the United States Army. 

General Sheridan was too eminent a citizen and soldier, too well 
known to his countrymen and to mankind generally, with a history 
and fame too wide spread to justify even a summary of his life and 
character in brief memorial pages. 

For forty years (1848-1888), from cadet to general, he was in his 
country's service. 

His humble birth and humble life to his cadetship, was not 
the least important in shaping his subsequent career. Though of 
foreign parentage, he was in youth imbued with the true spirit of 
Americanism, which possessed him in mature manhood in a marked 
degree. Patriotism or love of country was a part of him. The flag 
symbolized to him not a sentiment, but his whole country ; and its 
preservation became when assailed, a work of love and devotion. The 
warm Irish blood flowing in his veins made service to his country a 
passion as well as a duty. 

His naturally impetuous nature gave to his greater acts in life the 
appearance of inspirations rather than the result of calm deliberations. 

When obeying the orders of his superiors, or executing his own 
will or plans, he proceeded with such enthusiasm as to lead his patriotic 
friends at times to attribute his success to luck, rather than to military 
skill and superior judgment. 

His restless disposition in the presence of great impending events, 
coupled with his unquestioned bravery, made friend and foe at times 
regard him as only reckless. 

His marvellous and uniform success on the battlefield was by some 
attributed to accident or good luck, rather than to great soldierly 
qualities. 

Whatever of inspiration possessed him on great occasions was, 
however, based on superior judgment quickly formed ; whatever of 

46 



undue enthusiasm he apparently exhibited in the face of the enemy- 
could be charged up to confidence in his own and his soldiers' ability 
to surmount all difficulties and dangers and win success ; whatever of 
real or apparent recklessness he exhibited on the battlefield was attrib- 
utable to his impetuous, inborn nature, and to a soldierly judgment 
that the surest method to defeat an enemy was to continually put him 
on the defensive ; whatever of seeming good luck attended his career 
belonged to that quality in a great soldier that by his self-volition he 
created his own good luck so uniformly that to others it had the sem- 
blance of the superhuman. 

General Sheridan, with true soldierly instinct, preferred to attack 
the enemy and keep him employed rather than to allow him time to 
make combinations and execute his own plans. 

A characteristic of General Sheridan not common to many other 
commanders on the field, and the one without doubt that enabled him 
to achieve success and fame, was the quality of being more self- 
possessed and fuller of resources and expedients in the tumult of the 
battle than at any other time. He gave conclusive evidence to those 
who observed him closely before and during a great and severely con- 
tested field engagement, of awakening to a higher degree of mental 
power, when danger was most imminent, than he displayed at any 
other time or under ordinary circumstances. His original plan of 
battle, as is common, through unforeseen causes might prove to be 
defective or become impracticable, yet he under such circumstances 
never became disconcerted or dismayed, and he was always fortunate 
enough to instantaneously make a new plan of battle or other new 
combinations which were executed to meet the exigencies, and to 
insure final and complete success. 

Success and generalship are synonyms in war. 

Sheridan earned an honorable name in Indian campaigns before 
the war, on the frontiers of the west. 

His first active field service in the war was as a colonel of cavalry ; 
subsequently he commanded infantry in the southwest, not rising there 
above the command of a division. 

Shortly after General Grant took command of all the armies of 
the United States, and on April 4, 1864, Sheridan was placed in com- 
mand of the cavalry corps operating with the Army of the Potomac. 
At once his superiority as a cavalry officer showed itself. To confront 
him was the flower of the Confederate cavalry under an active, re- 
nowned leader, with other experienced officers under him. The pride 
of the South was in the efficiency and chivalry of its mounted soldiers, 
and their best were concentrated in the east. 

47 



General Sheridan decided to fight with the sword, and thenceforth 
the carbine and pistol became comparatively useless instruments in the 
hands of the enemy's cavalry ; as in close conflicts or melee friend was 
as likely to be shot as foe, and the sabre, wielded by the strong-armed 
Northern soldier, was irresistible. When confronted by infantry he 
fought his cavalry dismounted, then using the carbine efficiently. 

From the time this mode of warfare was put in practice to the end 
of the war, Sheridan's cavalry against a like arm of the service was 
invincible, regardless of any disparity of numbers. We have the 
recent testimony of the present Emperor of Germany that in the 
manner of fighting cavalry and in the mode of conducting campaigns, 
Sheridan has taught great military men new lessons in warfare. 

The greatest soldiers of modern Europe, Von Moltke and others, 
and the most illustrious soldier of our own country, General Grant, 
have concurred in pronouncing Sheridan the most accomplished of the 
great field generals of the world. 

General Sheridan, under his chief, General Grant, led the van in 
pursuit of General R. E. Lee's army from Richmond and Petersburg 
to Appomattox, and next to Grant contributed largely — more than 
any other officer — in compassing the surrender. His energy and 
endurance were remarkable. He could, when occasion required great 
efforts, endure for long periods great physical strain and loss of sleep. 

He had a quality, somewhat rare, of uniform evenness in his acts, 
indispensable to greatness. 

He has been so often called brilliant as a soldier that the fame 
which belongs to him has suffered. 

Though possessed of what is called dash when applied to a soldier 
in the presence of the enemy, he studied and practiced the art of war, 
and did not disregard, but observed — when applicable to the changed 
conditions growing out of improved arms and modern tactics — the 
laws of war, learned from experience and the greatest soldiers. He 
was indulgent and careful of his command whenever circumstances 
permitted ; but when a campaign was entered upon or a battle was in 
progress, he spared neither officers nor men, and inexorably exacted 
of his command the most extraordinary things. 

He did not have any patience with mediocrity, and would not 
patiently listen to excuses for failure to discharge a duty or to obey an 
order. His whole estimate of what an officer with high command 
should be is shown by his statement under oath when questioned as to 
whether a general of a corps had not done his duty at the battle of 
Five Forks in doing what should have ordinarily been done by the 

48 



ofificer under the circumstances. Prior to his being questioned as to 
the duty of the officer, many soldiers of experience had testified that 
in their opinion any good officer would ordinarily have done as he did 
under the same circumstances. Sheridan said he might admit that 
ordinarily military men would have acted as the officer did, but it was 
not ordinary acts that he expected or that were required to win a battle, 
but extraordinary ones; that a corps commander who was only capable 
of ordinary things was not fit for his command and should be removed. 

He interpreted the laconic order '■'■Push things,'''' sent to him by 
General Grant when he was in the advance in pursuit of General Lee's 
army on its retreat from Richmond, to require him to do all things 
possible and necessary to overthrow and capture the Confederate army. 

He won fame as a skilful and brave soldier in the west, at and 
around Corinth, Perry ville. Stone River, Chickamauga, and Missionary 
Ridge. 

From April 5, 1864, to April 9, 1865, twelve months, he fought 
twenty engagements in which he personally commanded, including 
some of the most sanguinary battles of the war; such as Opequan, 
Fisher's Hill, and Cedar Creek, in the Shenandoah Valley ; Five 
Forks, Sailor's Creek, etc., in Southern Virginia; and there were 
fifty-two other, mainly cavalry battles, fought by his command, and 
chiefly under his orders. In many of these engagements his cavalry 
fought against infantry as well as cavalry. 

History will record his acts and achievements on its indelible 
pages, to be read as long as bravery and soldierly deeds are the pass- 
ports to renown. 

In peace he proved himself equal to all the onerous duties cast 
upon him. 

In all stations of life, both as a citizen and as a soldier, he dis- 
charged his duty and deserves well of his country and mankind. 

As a husband and father he possessed and practiced the domestic 
virtues most to be admired by good people. His family loved him, 
and his friends everywhere, especially his soldier comrades in all 
stations in life, idolized him. Though he rose to the command of the 
Army of the United States, he never forgot his war comrades or his 
duty to them. 

He was a member of the Societies of the Army of the Potomac, 
of the Army of the Cumberland, and of the Cavalry Corps, and he 
was a constant attendant at the meetings. 

He loved to mingle with the soldiers of the Union at all their 
gatherings, and he was always in full sympathy with them. 



49 



He was a member of the Grand Army of the Republic, an organ- 
ization wherein rank has no preference over the humblest private 
soldier, and the test of eligibility is service in and an honorable dis- 
charge from the United States Army. 

He was a Companion in the Military Order of the Loyal Legion, 
where he was a frequent and welcome attendant, and fraternized with 
the Companions. 

General Sheridan was a diffident man in social intercourse, and 
modest everywhere and under all circumstances, save in the presence 
of duty which fell to him to perform. 

Though still young in years when death claimed him, his mission 
seemed to be fulfilled on earth ; and few men had accomplished so 
much for his country as General Sheridan. 

On the face of the hill-slope, on the south bank of the Potomac, 
in full view of the Capitol of his country, in Arlington, the greatest 
city of the soldier dead, amid that army of other soldiers who had also 
paid the penalty of devotion to country and duty and gone before, the 
great captain has been laid to rest, to awake with them only at the 
reveille call on the Judgment morning. 

A nation of sixty millions of people now honor his name, and 
their posterity will continue to read the story of his deeds to the 
remotest ages. 

His Companions of the Military Order of the Loyal Legion, next 
to his family, knew him best and will miss him most. 

We now bring this feeble tribute to the renowned soldier, the 
faithful citizen, and our illustrious dead Companion. 

J. Warren Keifer, 

Brevet Major-General U. S.V. 

Wm. D. Bickham, 

Major and Volunteer A. D. C. 

Wm. H. Enochs, 

Brevet Brigadier-General U. S.V. 

Committee. 



50 



€ommanbcrg of tl)c 0tatc of iMicljigan 



3n (IHetnomm 



PHILIP HENRY SHERIDAN 



Gknerai. Unitkd Statks Army 



tfommanbctB of tl)e State of iilicl^igan 



Once more this Commandery is called to place upon its records a 
memorial page ; not in memory of a Companion simply, but for the 
second time in two years and a half, to mourn in common with all of 
our Order the loss of our Commander-in-Chief. 

The career of General Sheridan occupies so conspicuous a place 
in our country's history that no recital thereof is necessary to those 
who have so long honored him. Yet, as he may be fairly said to have 
"won his spurs" as a cavalry leader with Michigan troops and under 
the authority of our Governor's commission, we feel it our prerogative 
to cherish a more than national pride in his success ; and in speaking 
of his remarkable career appreciate the privilege of placing upon our 
records an expression of our estimation of the priceless value of his 
services. 

From his first important success at Booneville, Mississippi, to the 
last act in the great tragedy of war at Appomattox, having passed 
through the various grades from the command of a regiment of cavalry 
to the command of an army, he showed himself in a most marked 
degree the complete master of the art and science of war. Whether 
seen in the fierce contests of Stone River and Chickamauga, stoutly 
holding his position against repeated assaults in overwhelming numbers, 
or in the brilliant assault on Missionary Ridge sweeping away with 
resistless force obstacles that had seemed impassable, or in the larger 
fields of Winchester, Cedar Creek, and Five Forks, where the splendid 
management of his troops and his own personal gallantry and magnet- 
ism won such signal triumphs, we behold in each situation a great 
soldier, great enough indeed to be the master of any emergency which 
confronts him. As new and increased responsibilities were pressed 
upon him there was developed an enlarged capacity to meet them, 
until it can be said without extravagance that he became one of the 
marked and noted great soldiers of the world's history ; to use the 
words of the English press, "the peer of any soldier in Europe." 



52 



Let us devoutly and reverently thank God that in the hour of our 
country's great distress He gave us Sheridan. 

Resolved, That we in words of sincere and honest sympathy 
extend to the family and relations of our deceased Companion our 
tender and respectful condolence in this their dark hour of bereave- 
ment, and that an official copy of this memorial be forwarded to them. 



L. S. Trowbridge, 

Brevet Major-General U. S. V. 
Henry F. Lyster, 

Major and Surgeon U. S. V. 

Frederick T. Sibley. 

Committee. 



53 



vHommanberB of tl^e State of i^linnesota 



3n (Wlmonam 



PHILIP HENRY SHERIDAN 



General United States Army 



(jlommanbcrg of \\)t State of illinucsota 



Philip Henry Sheridan, General commanding the armies of the 
United States, and Commander-in-Chief of the Military Order of the 
Loyal Legion, died August 5, 1888. Lifted by approved merit and 
magnificent achievement through successive gradations to rank among 
the foremost leaders in the struggle for national preservation, he has 
lived until now, wearing worthily the laurels he so nobly won, and 
witnessing the augmented prosperity of the land he so bravely de- 
fended. The eager gratitude of his admiring countrymen was ever in 
advance of his own modest self-assertion in appreciation of his sol- 
dierly qualities and in recognition of his splendid deeds. It is an 
added poignancy to their grief that his sudden removal, in the golden 
prime of his manhood, blights their expectation of lengthening future 
years in which to manifest their enduring regard by cumulative honors. 
While thus the nation mourns, there comes to the surviving compan- 
ions of his illustrious service a keener pang. Within the sacred pale 
of that comradeship there is a sorrow none outside can measure, for it 
embosoms memories and loves and premonitions others cannot know. 

Conscious of our incompetence to adequately express this sorrow, 
as we are confident that emblazoned history will do justice to his death- 
less fame, the Minnesota Commandery of the Military Order of the 
Loyal Legion records this memorial tribute to our departed Com- 
mander-in-Chief, and directs that a copy of same be forwarded by the 
Recorder to his widow, as a feeble testimonial of our participation in 
her bereavement. 

Thos. H. Ruger, 

Brigadier-General U. S. A. 
JuDSON W. Bishop, 

Brevet Brigadier-General U. S. V. 
A. B. Nkttleton, 

Brevet Brigadier-General U. S. V. 
Edwin C. Mason, 

Brevet Brigadier-General U. S. A. 
Henry A. Castle, 

Captain U. S. V. 
John Ireland, 

Chaplain U. S. V. 
John P. Rea, 

Brevet Major U. S. V. 

CommiUee. 

56 



€^Dmmau&cvj3 of tl)c 0tatc of ©vcgon 



j|n (Wlmomm 



PHILIP HENRY SHERIDAN 



Genkrai. United Staies Army 



€ommanbevj3 of tl)e State of ©rcgon 



This Commandery of the Loyal Legion has learned the death of 
its illustrious Commander-in-Chief, General Philip Henry Sheridan, 
with feelings of profound grief. 

We had especial pride in his great fame, for in our midst and 
in defence of Oregon homes he began that brilliant career which only 
death could end. 

In all that endears a friend and companion, that ennobles man- 
hood, that marks a brave and virtuous soldier, a patriotic citizen, he 
was fit to be a model to his countrymen. 

We cannot affect a resignation we do not feel, but deeply deplore 
the loss of our revered commander and beloved companion, cut down 
in the prime of a glorious life, when we had learned the value of his 
wisdom in our counsels and know that his place cannot be made good 
to us. 

To his bereaved family we offer the consolation of our sympathy 
and tears, assuring them that these old officers of the Union Army, — 
many of whom have followed his plume in battle, — will cherish his 
memory as 

" One of the few, the immortal names 
That were not bom to die." 

Alfred F. Sears, Major. 

W. J. Shipley, First Lieutenant. 

B. B. TuTTLE, Captain. 

Committee. 



58 



^ommanicrg of tl)C State of iltissouvi 



3n (Wlentomnt 



PHILIP HENRY SHERIDAN 



Genkrai. United States Army 



vsrommanbcrg of tl)e State of iltissouri 



The life of our illustrious Companion and Commander-in-Chief 
of our Order affords a most striking exemplification of the grandest 
feature of our system of government, by which every man is free to 
attain any position to which his virtues, talents, patriotism and energy 
may entitle him. Without the aid of wealth or favor of the influential 
and powerful, Sheridan fairly won his way from the condition of a 
poor boy, up, — up round by round upon the ladder of fame, — to the 
exalted rank of General commanding all the armies of his country, — 
a distinction hitherto achieved by only two great soldiers of the 
Republic. 

Quick of perception, instant in his conclusions, like the lightning's 
flash in execution, he seemed not to wait on slow-paced reason, but 
bounded to results as if by inspiration. Fifty-seven years was the 
measure of his life, thirty-five years of which was given to his country's 
service. The nation mourns its loss in him ; his comrades who fought 
with him to uphold and establish forever the supremacy of the national 
authority, embalm his memory sacredly in their hearts. The people 
of the whole land bend in sorrow over his bier to-day, and in his 
country's history glowing pages will tell to coming ages of his deeds of 
valor, his acts of patriotism, and his fidelity to all the great principles 
which ennoble men and lend lasting glory to nations. 

In this hour of sadness and grief our most sincere sympathy goes 
out to his loved ones at home, to his kindred, his companions of our 
Order, to his comrades in whose hearts he is enshrined by the memory 
of the part he bore in the great war for liberty and union, and to the 
American people in the loss which in common they have sustained in 
the death of the patriot, hero, soldier, our Companion and Com- 
mander-in-Chief. 

Thos. C. Fletchkr, 

Brevet Brigadier-General U. S.V. 
Jno. D. Stevenson, 

]5revet Major-General U. S.V. 
A. J. Smith, 

Major-General U. S.V. 
H. M. Pollard, 

Major U. S.V. 
J. G. Butler, 

Major U. S.V. 

Committee. 
60 



..J 



€ommanbcr3 of tl)e State of Jfcbraska 



3n (Wlmotiam 



PHILIP HENRY SHERIDAN 



Gknkrai. Uniti'.d Statks Army 



Commanbcrj) of tl)e State of Nebraska 



IVJiereas, The Commandery of the Military Order of the Loyal 
Legion for the State of Nebraska learns with inexpressible grief of the 
loss by death of its Commander-in-Chief; 

Resolved, That we make this official and public expression of our 
admiration of his worth and virtues, and unfeigned sorrow for our 
loss; 

We cherish for him endearing memories of his simplicity of char- 
acter, of his courteousness alike to superior and inferior, and of his 
loyalty alike to country and to friends ; 

We pronounce exalted admiration for him as a typical soldier, a 
great captain, a masterly leader ; 

We reverence that conscientious fidelity which had no ambition 
for honors or preferments outside of his profession, and caused him to 
feel that as general-in -chief of the American army the highest honor 
of his country was attained ; 

America's history has no grander hero ; the world's history has no 
sublimer patriot. 

We mourn his loss to our companionship and to his country's ser- 
vice, to his painfully bereft family, and to that galaxy of military 
chieftains which is fast being obscured by the eclipse of time. 

We tender to the loving and sorrowing family circle from which 
he is gone forever, our earnest sympathy and sincerest condolence ; 

Resolved, That an engrossed copy of these resolutions be furnished 
to the family of the deceased and to the Commandery-in-Chief of this 
Order. 

George M. Humphrey, 
Captain U. S.V. 

Commander. 
J. Morris Brown, 

Major and Surgeon U. S. A. 
Recorder. 



62 



€omman5evj3 of tl)c 0tatc of liansos 



3n Q)lemomm 



PHILIP HENRY SHERIDAN 



General Umtkd Staies Army 



Commanberg of tl)e State of Kansas 



The Commandery has heard with sorrow inexpressible of the 
death of its Commander-in-Chief, Philip Henry Sheridan. His last 
battle was his hardest, and his death his only defeat. His career was 
truly wonderful. Born in the humblest station, he died in the highest. 
He came into life with the adaptability of genius, and instinctively 
fitted his life to its surroundings ; or rather his nature was so catholic 
it found harmony in every phase of life with which it was brought in 
contact. When obscure and undistinguished he scrupulously fulfilled 
the duty that lay nearest to his hand ; and when, in the conflict of an- 
tagonistic principles and the shock of hostile armies, the opportunity 
came, the intuitions of his genius enabled him to seize it with a tena- 
acious grasp and to attain the most exalted rank. In this there was no 
thought of self, no dream of vain glory or personal honors ; he con- 
sidered only what was involved in the struggle. His patriotism was 
both an instinct and a devotion ; he belonged to his country and his 
race. No mere desire of fame clouded or obscured his intellectual 
horizon, but all his acts and utterances were broad as the land that 
gave him birth and pure as the starry banner under and for which he 
fought, struggled and suffered. His ability was soon appreciated by 
those above, and still more quickly by those below him. The common 
soldier — if there were any common soldiers in those days of high pur- 
poses and iron nerves — whether resting in the bivouac, toiling in the 
trenches or fighting in the battles, would follow him, convinced that 
triumph would be theirs if only Sheridan were their leader. They 
regarded him as the incarnate Genius of Victory, and never hesitated 
to follow wherever his spotless blade pointed the way. To them, too, 
hef was no less a leader than an elder brother, and they loved him with 
a devotion beautiful in its simplicity and trust. 

He was as cool in the storm of battle as upon parade, his eye like 
the eagle's flashing through cloud and smoke, his mind active and alert 
ready to form rapid combinations with instinctive comprehension of 
their results and quick to seize upon every resource that would aid in 
achieving victory. 

64 



When the battle was over no heart could be more tender in its 
sympathies, and no hand softer in its gentle ministrations to the suffer- 
ing. It was this dual nature — a veritable storm in action, a ministering 
angel by the bedside of the wounded — which bound him to the hearts 
of the soldiers under his command, and won from them the endearing 
appellation of ' ^Little Phil. ' ' 

No words of ours can augment his fame, nor will they avail to 
bewail his loss. His last deed on earth is done. His record is com- 
plete. No blot is there. It is as pure as the pages of the Book of 
Life. It is like the realization of an angel's dream for the imitation of 
those who follow him. His glory will not fade nor will he be forgotten 
until history shall have been obliterated. 

In humble and heartfelt tribute to his memory, therefore, be it 

Resolved, by the Commandery of the Military Order of the Loyal 
Legion of the United States of the State of Kansas, that our tenderest 
sympathies are respectfully offered to the bereaved widow and mourn- 
ing children of our great Commander ; 

Resolved, That in the death of General Sheridan the country has 
sustained an irreparable loss ; the army has been deprived of a devoted 
friend ; society of one of its brightest ornaments ; and the old soldiers 
of the war of a loving benefactor. 



Andrew J. Smith, 

Brevet Colonel U. S.V. 
Chas. W. Blair, 

Brevet Brigadier-General U. S.V. 
J. P. Martin, 

Lieutenant-Colonel U. S. A. 

Cominittee.^ 



65 



OIommanbcvB «^f tl)c 0tatc of lotua 



3n (Wlmomm 



PHILIP HENRY SHERIDAN 



General United States Army 



4IommanbevD of tl)e State of loroa 



Since the last meeting of this Commandery, the death of Gen. 
Phihp H. Sheridan, Commander-in-Chief of the Military Order of the 
Loyal Legion of the United States, has been chronicled. 

In recognition of his patriotic career as an American, his distin- 
guished services to the nation, his brilliant achievements in the sup- 
pression of the great rebellion, his genial companionship in this Order, 
and the love borne him by all true patriots, we pause with hushed 
breath and tear-dimmed eyes, to express our sense of the grievous loss 
thus brought upon his family, upon this Order, this nation, and this 
age. 

Duty was his star, his country his hope. His career is his eulogy. 

He was the one brilliant, unconquerable chieftain of modern 
times — loved by man, adored by woman, the idol of children. 

Heroism ever attended him. Victory delighted to perch upon his 
banner. Patriotism carried his torch. Duty, as a winged messenger, 
guided him. 

He never faltered. He never failed. He yielded only to death. 

His achievements are written upon the brightest pages of history. 
His character, as an American, is as a red-letter day in the calendar of 
ages — it is an incentive to duty and high endeavor for all time. 

Standing in silence and in grief, we tender to the family of our 
late and beloved Commander our sincerest sympathy in the great 
bereavement they have been called upon to bear. 

In the prime of life, in the maturity of his splendid powers, at 
the head of the armies of the republic, he met the only enemy he 
could not conquer. Bravely he battled, but the summons could not 
be resisted by all his courage, backed by the prayers of a grateful peo- 
ple. He is gone, but the world is better for his having lived. His name 
and fame are the heritage of this nation and the world ; his career a 
splendid tribute to the genius of our government, which can command 
such sons in days of peril. May his memory be loyally cherished and 
the generations yet to come be worthy such a hero. 



68 



Henry H. Rood, First Lieutenant and Adjutant. 

Eli Wilkin, Major. 

C. E. Putnam, Captain. 

Chas. L. Watrous, Captain. 

John A. T. Hull, Captain. 

Fred. S. Whiting, Captain. 

A. N. NiCHOLDS, Major. 

V. P. TwoMBLY, Captain. 

Chas. L. Longley. 

M. A. HiGLEY, Captain. 

Wm. p. Henderson, Captain. 

John Hood, Captain. 

Milton Russell, Captain. 

Geo. S. Bacon, Captain. 

Hoyt Sherman, Major. 

Committee. 



69 



I 



€ommanIrcrg of tf)c 0tatc of ^olova&o 



j[n (Wlemonam 



PHILIP HENRY SHERIDAN 



General United States Army 



^ommanbcrg of tl)C State of €olorabo 



WJiereas, The Colorado Commandery of the Loyal Legion has 
been called upon to mourn the death of their beloved Commander-in- 
Chief, General Philip Henry Sheridan, the General of the United 
States Army, therefore be it 

Resolved, That in the death of General Sheridan Ave recognize the 
loss of a steadfast friend, an uncompromising patriot, the ideal soldier, 
unmurmuring in obedience, swift and terrible in execution, firm in dis- 
cipline, wise and discreet in counsel, consummate in tactical skill ; in 
his every battle the incarnate genius of war, with his troops in a noble 
rage, sending the enemy whirling in confusion and dismay from the 
field ; the nation's pride, and one of the truest and bravest defenders 
in the gigantic struggle for its life. 

Resolved, That the name of Sheridan, one of the few, the immor- 
tal names that were not born to die, will forever brighten the pages of 
history whereon are recorded the deeds of matchless heroism ; will be 
an example and inspiration for every loyal American youth, and a syn- 
onym of victory in the contest for the maintenance of liberty, justice 
and equal rights with every people in all the ages to come. 
Resolved, 

That we, his waiting companions, 

Will not fear for our Sheridan ; 
"But on these lower fields 

We will labor with arms unstained, 

That we may be worthy to stand with him 

On the shining heights he has gained. 

We will meet and greet in closing ranks, 

In time's declining sun. 

When the bugles of God shall sound recall. 

And the battle of life is won." 

Resolved, That a copy of these resolutions be sent to the family 
of our late Commander-in-Chief, that home of which he was the life 



72 



and light, with a soldier's pledge that his stricken ones will always be 
the objects of tenderest solicitude and sympathy by his surviving Com- 
panions of the Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United 
States. 



W. T. Clark, Brevet Major-General. 
S. H. Hastings, Colonel. 
George Ady, First Lieutenant. 

Comvtittee. 



73 



®l)c Comman&cvD-iu-€l)tcf 



3n Qtlmotiam 



PHILIP HENRY SHERIDAN 



Gkneral United Statks Army 



®l)c ^ommanberg-in-^ljief 



(^Extract from Journal Fourth Annual Alccling, iSSS.) 

Senior Vice-Commander-in-Chief Rutherford B. Hayes, presiding, 
spoke as follows : 

Companions : 

Since the organization of the Commandery-in-Chief of the Mili- 
tary Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States, October 21-22, 
1885, the chief office of our Order has twice been made vacant by 
death. 

Philip Henry Sheridan was born in Perry County, Ohio, March 
6, 1 83 1. He died at Nonquitt, Massachusetts, August 5, 1888. More 
than forty years, his whole life after childhood, were spent in the mili- 
tary service of his country. 

The following is a summary of his rank, with dates, from cadet 
to general : 

Cadet U.S. Military Academy July i, 1848; Brevet Second 
Lieutenant ist U. S. Infantry July i, 1853; Second Lieutenant 4th 
Infantry November 22, 1854; First Lieutenant March i, 1861 ; Cap- 
tain 13th Infantry May 14, 1861 ; vacated commission October 12, 
1864. 

Colonel 2d Michigan Cavalry May 25, 1862; discharged for 
promotion September 29, 1862. 

Brigadier-General U. S. Volunteers July i, 1862; Major-General 
December 31, 1862 ; vacated commission in volunteer service Novem- 
ber 8, 1864. 

Brigadier-General U.S. Army September 20, 1864; Major-Gen- 
eral U. S. Army November 8, 1864, "for the personal gallantry, mili- 
tary skill, and just confidence in the courage and patriotism of his 
troops, displayed by him on the nineteenth day of October, at Cedar 
Creek, whereby, under the blessing of Providence, his routed army 
was reorganized, a great national disaster averted, and a brilliant vic- 
tory achieved over the rebels for the third time in pitched battles 
within thirty days." 

The Senate and House of Representatives of the United States 



76 



of America in Congress assembled, Resolved (joint resolution approved 
February 9, 1865), that the thanks of Congress are hereby tendered 

"To Major-General P. H. Sheridan and the officers and soldiers 
under his command, for the gallantry, military skill, and courage dis- 
played in the brilliant series of victories achieved by them in the Val- 
ley of the Shenandoah, and especially for their services at Cedar Creek 
on the nineteenth day of October, 1864, which retrieved the fortunes 
of the day and thus averted a great disaster." 

Lieutenant-General U. S. Army March 4, 1869 ; vacated commis- 
sion June I, 1888. 

General U. S. Army June i, 1888. 

Elected May 6, 1868, in the Commandery of Pennsylvania. 
Class I. Insignia 750. 

Transferred to Commandery of Illinois May i, 1879 — Charter 
member. 

Commander of the Commandery of Illinois May 8, 1879, to 
November 7, 1883. 

Transferred to Commandery of District of Columbia October 
20, 1886. 

Commander-in-Chief of the Order October 20, 1886, to August 
5, 1888. 

Washington, Grant, Sherman, and Sheridan are the only officers 
who were ever commissioned General of the United States Army. 

Since Napoleon the First the military historian can find no man 
with a more brilliant war record than that of Philip H. Sheridan. His 
life as a soldier has noble advantages over that of even Napoleon him- 
self. His service was against American soldiers of training, of expe- 
rience, and of tried courage. They were, in Sheridan's last splendid 
campaign, under a leader who lacked only a good cause to have won a 
pure and imperishable fame. Better still, his service was in the inter- 
est of liberty, and of good government, and of peace. He fought 
for his country and for all mankind. And finally, it was the crowning 
good fortune of his life to know that the cause for which he fought 
was completely and permanently triumphant. 

A full narrative of the incidents of Sheridan's life — of his deeds 
and words — would be far too protracted for this occasion. You will, 
however, I am sure, pardon me for repeating here a brief sketch of his 
military life, from his own lips, as it was heard six or seven years ago 
by his comrades of the Loyal Legion of the Commandery of Illinois, 
at a banquet in his honor in the city of Chicago. 

"While you seem," he said, "to be willing to accord to me high 
L.ofC. 

77 



praise, I, at least, do not forget that a general, no matter how brilliant 
may be his military genius, is nothing without good officers and men. 
I am, therefore, comrades, willing to bow my head and acknowledge 
that what has come to me has been by the assistance of such gallant 
officers and men as are represented here to-night by this Commandery. 
There never was, in my judgment, so effective a body of officers and 
men as the armies of the Union at the close of our rebellion. 

"It has been my fortune to have witnessed the hostile operations 
of large bodies of trained soldiers in continental Europe since the close 
of our war, and while they were steady under fire, youthful in looks, 
handsomely uniformed and well equipped, they had not the experience 
or the resources of the ragged veterans who marched through Wash- 
ington at the close of the war. 

"It may be proper, considering the occasion, to refer to myself, 
and I will therefore say that I came home from among the Indians 
along the Columbia River in the distant State of Oregon, some eight 
months after the War of the Rebellion had commenced, having just 
been promoted from a first lieutenant to the rank of captain, and with 
the love of my country dearest in my heart. I was young, healthy, 
and vigorous ; so well hardened by my mountain service it now seems 
to me when I look back on what I went through that I must have 
been almost insensible to fatigue. I became the Chief Quarter- 
master and Chief Commissary of the Army of the Southwest, and 
carried that army forward until after the battle of Pea Ridge. I then 
returned, and by links it would be too tedious on this occasion to 
dwell upon, found myself at Shiloh, three or four days after the famous 
battle there, when I became the Colonel of the Second Michigan 
Cavalry. I had never seen the regiment, had never met any of the 
officers except Major Alger and the Quartermaster, and only met them 
when they brought me the telegram announcing me as the colonel of 
the regiment. 

"I was made its colonel on the morning of the day I joined the 
regiment, which was after dark, and at nine o'clock p.m. marched 
with it on the Booneville raid, and burned the trains in rear of the 
rebel army at Booneville. An opening had now come, and I believed 
I could make the most of it by being an honorable, truthful soldier. 
I knew no one in authority to help me, and if I had, I think I would 
have preferred to rely on myself and the men and officers I commanded 
for any future which might come to me. I therefore thought I would 
make the best colonel I could without looking for anything higher un- 
less I could win it. Success so far attended me that in less than one 



78 



month I was a brigadier-general of volunteers. When I became a 
brigadier-general I thought I would make the best one I could. A di- 
vision of infantry came to my command, in what afterwards became 
the old Army of the Cumberland, and that division made me major- 
general before the year was up, December 31, 1863, at Stone River. 
While in command of this old division, Chickamauga, Missionary 
Ridge, and the campaign into East Tennessee came on, in all of which 
the division did so w^ell that I was transferred to the Army of the Po- 
tomac to command the magnificent cavalry corps of that Army. With 
it I led the advance of Grant's victorious army through the Wilderness 
and down to Petersburg. Still retaining the command of the cavalry 
corps, which I did until the end of the war, I was transferred to the 
Valley of the Shenandoah to command the army of that name. For 
the first battle I fought I was made brigadier-general in the regular 
army, and for the third battle — just one month afterward — I was made 
a major-general in the regular army. 

"Events went on, and in the early spring of 1865, abandoning 
temporarily the command of the Middle Military Division and the 
Army of the Shenandoah, I put myself at the head of the cavalry 
corps and started to join Sherman's army in South Carolina, but failing 
to cross my command over the James River on account of high water, 
I thought I would do the next best thing, go down and join Grant at 
Petersburg, and again led the advance of the armies of General Grant 
in the last campaign against Lee. You all know, comrades, what 
occurred in that campaign. 

"My friends, by following my remarks, you will see that the cav- 
alry made me a brigadier-general in the volunteer service at Booneville; 
then the infantry a major-general at Stone River. The cavalry and 
infantry, at the battle of Opequan, near Winchester, made me a brig- 
adier-general in the regular army ; and the cavalry, infantry, and artil- 
lery, at Cedar Creek, commonly known as the battle of Winchester, 
made me a major-general in the regular army ; and it was to me, while 
in command of cavalry and infantry, that the white flag was presented 
at Appomattox in token of surrender of the Army of Northern Vir- 
ginia, commanded by General Lee, on the morning of April 9, 1865. 

"All these promotions and successes came to me, and I now say, 
before this Commandery, that there is not a scrap of paper existing 
which will show that I ever asked for any one of them. They were 
won for me by the troops I had the honor to command. It has been 
said that I was rash ; that I was dashing and reckless. I say in reply, 
that there never was an officer more careful of his troops. I never lost 



79 



a man without a just equivalent if I could help it. There never was 
an officer who was more painstaking to obtain information of the 
enemy, his strength, and his intentions than I was. I took good care 
of my men. I encamped them well. I watched their rations and 
their comforts, and when we fought the enemy I showed the men the 
confidence of victory from my knowledge of the enemy and my con- 
fidence in them. I probably should not speak so much about myself, 
but it should be remembered that I was the Chief Quartermaster and 
the Chief Commissary of the Army of the Southwest at the battle of 
Pea Ridge ; a cavalry commander in Mississippi with the Army of the 
Tennessee ; an infantry commander in Kentucky and Tennessee with 
the Army of the Cumberland ; a cavalry commander in Virginia with 
the Army of the Potomac ; an infantry and cavalry commander in the 
Valley of the Shenandoah ; and a cavalry and infantry commander in 
the last campaign against Lee, ending at Appomattox ; that I was con- 
stantly changing from one arm of the service to another, and constantly 
changing from different sections of the country to others, with new 
lines of operations to study and operate on, new men to command who 
had no acquaintance with me ; that I had to overcome the natural 
jealousies of sections and the jealousies engendered from an infantry 
officer commanding cavalry. 

''AH my war commissions, comrades, have the date of a battle, 
except my present one of Lieutenant-General, which was given for all." 

It must be confessed that this is a wonderful and attractive story. 
Truthful in all its parts, it does but scant justice to its hero. It was 
my good fortune to serve under Sheridan in the Army of the Shenan- 
doah — at first in command of a brigade of the old Kanawha Division 
of the Army of West Virginia, and afterwards in command of that di- 
vision. We came under the command of Sheridan in the famous 
Valley after midsummer in 1864. We had served under a long list of 
commanders. The intelligence and shrewdness of the rank and file, 
with their long and varied experience, enabled them with a quick and 
unerring judgment to take the measure of the new commander. It was 
amazing the promptness with which they found him out, and he easily 
i^nderstood them. I have quoted from his speech to a society of offi- 
cers. A few of his off-hand words to the men in the ranks will show 
his relations with them. Two years ago, at Portsmouth, Ohio, I had 
the pleasure of presenting him to a great gathering of his old soldiers. 
He said : — 

" Comrades of the Army of West Virginia : I did not come here 
to make a speech. I came out here to meet my old comrades and to 

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shake hands with them and be with them on this occasion, because the 
Army of West Virginia helped to put these stars upon my shoulders 
that are there now. " . . . "Who is it that gave me these things? 
It was the men who carried the muskets who were the true heroes of 
the war. I have nobody that I am indebted to except the soldier who 
carried the musket, and I say here that I am indebted to the Army of 
West Virginia for some of these successes. I thought I would come 
here and make my obligations good to you. I am glad to be here 
with you. You are my comrades. We tented together, lived together, 
and whenever the enemy came I always staid with you. When I came 
back to Winchester and found that you were in trouble, I met some of 
the boys coming back. That didn't stop me. I didn't square off and 
let the boys take the results. But I went down there and was willing to 
share anything that might happen to them. I was honest, fair and 
square about it all the time. I come here as your friend and compan- 
ion, and feel indebted to you, and hope you will have a happy time. 
I am not much on talking, but am pretty good on shaking hands. I 
would like to shake hands with every man in the Army of West Vir- 
ginia, and will do it if you will give me a chance." 

I need not say that this short speech created the utmost enthusi- 
asm, and was followed by great cheering and by a great hand-shaking. 
After it was over, and after Sheridan had left, I was called on to say 
something about Sheridan. What was then said was off-hand, but I do 
not now care to change it: "I am in the habit of speaking of Sheridan 
as the Battle General of the War. Whenever you think of him it is 
of Sheridan in battle ; you think of him as the hero of a victory. 
You, my comrades, are called on to give testimony as witnesses to the 
great skill, courage, and comprehensive military genius of Sheridan. 
Not that there is any reason to defend Sheridan or his conduct in any 
of his battles. It is one of the peculiar characteristics of his military 
career that his victories were so complete and their results so decisive 
that there is no controversy about them. We have had recited here 
that stirring poem of Thos. Buchanan Read ; and as it is recited we 
are delighted with it. But is it true ? It is poetry, but is it a fact ? 
We are here to say to this great audience what we know about it. I 
suspect that there are more men present to-night who know about that 
battle from beginning to end, from the sad and sorrowful disaster in 
the morning to the glorious victory of the evening, than perhaps will 
ever be gathered in one place again. The tendency of this poetical 
view of Sheridan's Ride is to diminish rather than to enhance the 
greatness of the victory and the value of his conduct on that occasion. 

8i 



We know perfectly well that he being absent, the army in the morning 
was surprised. Nobody disputes it. I see a great many faces that 
were surprised that morning. But as daylight came and the fog drifted 
away, and the great percentage of stragglers that went to the rear had 
gone, the grand army that remained gradually got the better of the 
surprise and were surprised no longer. Gradually each brigade, each 
division, each corps, came to a stop and compelled the enemy to stop 
also. But there we were, a part of our artillery captured, and it was a 
question whether we could get off without further loss. I don't speak 
to criticise anybody. We all know how General Crook stood. There 
were those in the army who believed that by ten or eleven o'clock the 
time had come when we should go back and recapture our camps, but 
no movement was made. When the knowledge came to us that Sheri- 
dan was in Winchester, that knowledge brought comfort and hope and 
faith to every heart that knew Sheridan. He never left any part of his 
army or any commander of any part of his army to get out of any 
scrape he might get into. He felt that his duty was to help every man 
out of trouble that belonged to his army. And we understood with 
perfect faith that when Sheridan learned that his army was engaged at 
Cedar Creek, he would come with the swiftest horse he could procure, 
and that was what we were waiting for. Of course the hours passed 
slowly. We were waiting and hoping and believing, and finally when 
he came and we saw the black horse down the pike, and saw the ap- 
proaching stragglers, the return of our leader was equal to anything 
ever told in history, poetry, or fiction ; for we knew that when he 
reached the front, victory was not far off. And so it turned out. And 
now the essential part of the poem is this : The horse and the rider, 
returning to that field, gave to the Army of the Shenandoah and to 
the Union one of its most splendid victories. And that is but a plain 
matter-of-fact statement of the facts as we know them. Perhaps, the 
next great operations in which he was engaged were that series of 
marches and battles which terminated in the surrender of Lee at Ap- 
pomattox. And as that history shall be studied more and more in after 
years, the military ability and success of Sheridan will rise higher and 
higher in the estimation and judgment of every man. This, my friends, 
is the testimony that we of the Army of the Shenandoah are called 
upon to give. Am I not right?" 

He is a rare man who can rise above the profession in which he is 
bred and to which he has devoted his life. This is especially true of 
one so greatly distinguished in the profession of his choice as General 
Sheridan was. In the last speech I ever heard him make — at the Cen- 

82 



tennial of the Constitution in this city a year ago — he exhibited a 
largeness of views and a liberality very creditable to his understanding 
and character. "There is," he said, "one thing we should appreci- 
ate, and that is that the improvement in guns and in the material of 
war, in dynamite and other explosives, is rapidly bringing us to a 
period when war will eliminate itself — when we can no longer stand 
up and fight each other in battle, and when we will have to resort to 
something else. Now what will that something else be ? It will be 
arbitration. I mean what I say when I express the belief that if any 
one now here could live until the next Centennial he would find that 
arbitration will rule the world.'''' We can not mistake the significance 
of those weighty and beneficent words. The man who so confidently 
predicts peace on earth states clearly enough his own hope and his own 
faith. What other warrior, so illustrious, ancient or modern, ever en- 
rolled himself among the friends and advocates of peace? 

His surviving Companions of the Loyal Legion will always recall 
with peculiar satisfaction and pride his relations with our Order. When 
he was chosen Commander-in-Chief he sent to us the following dis- 
patch ; — 

Washington, D. C, October 20, 1886. 

I have this moment (seven p.m.) received your telegram inform- 
ing me that I have been unanimously elected Commander-in-Chief of 
the Loyal Legion — the news has filled my heart with great joy. My 
telegram of to-day explains my absence. I will be faithful and honor- 
able, and try to merit the confidence reposed in me by a society the 

most distinguished and intelligent in this country. 

P. H. .Sheridan. 

I will come to Philadelphia on the seven o'clock train to-morrow 
morning. 

P. H. Sheridan. 

The next day, on his investiture as Commander-in-Chief, he .spoke 
as follows ; — 

"Companions of the Commandery-in-CIiief : 

"Your action in choosing me the Commander-in-Chief of the 
Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States has come to 
me so unexpectedly that I can only return you my sincere and heartfelt 
thanks. I highly appreciate the great honor you have conferred on 
me, and can only repay you by a diligent performance of the duties 
which may fall upon me. 

"I will do all I can to promote the best interests of the Order, 
and to promote its honor and high character." 

83 



Those who have known Sheridan longest and best confidently be- 
lieve that the day will never come when the historian of America will 
cease to linger and to dwell with delight on the character and deeds of 
the Companion we have lost. 

Poets and artists will vie with each other in perpetuating his in- 
spiring and magnetic presence at Cedar Creek, at Five Forks, and on 
other stricken fields. The Plutarch of the future will preserve his stir- 
ring battle-speeches, dispatches, and bulletins. The military critic will 
always find in Sheridan one of the finest examples of impetuosity and 
dash joined to prudence and sound judgment, and to that thoroughness 
which is never contertt until every legitimate result of success is safely 
gathered. 

With all the essential virtues of the soldier, our beloved Compan- 
ion possessed also those personal traits which are the ornament and 
charm of comradeship, and the tenderness and thoughtfulness for oth- 
ers which make homes happy. 

In the fitting words of our Companions of the Commandery of 
Nebraska, we shall always "cherish for him endearing memories of his 
simplicity and sincerity of character, of his kindness alike to superior 
and subordinate, and of his loyalty alike to country and to friends. 
We admire in him that conscientious fidelity which had no ambition 
for honors or preferments outside of his profession, and which caused 
him to feel that as Commander-in-Chief of the American army the 
highest honor of his country was attained. 

"We mourn his loss to our companionship and to his country's 
service. 

"We tender to the loving and sorrowing family circle from which 
he is gone, our earnest sympathy and our sincere affection." 



84 



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